On any given day at Launch Chapel Hill<\/a>, you\u2019ll find local entrepreneurs immersed in the daily grind, intently plugging away at vital work. One team huddled in a corner developing its technology. Another in a conference room bouncing around ideas: brainstorming, business planning and reviewing customer feedback. And, of course, founders engaged in pitch-prep sessions.<\/p>\n But for those who came out to the Launch Demo Day event one early May evening to hear from one of the most diverse sets of companies you\u2019ll find anywhere, the startup accelerator offered a different kind of focus. This event was less about what the companies were doing and more about where they\u2019re going. If attendees arrived wondering, \u201cWhat types of startups will we see,\u201d they left pondering, \u201cWhat types of startup haven\u2019t we seen? And what will they do next?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been a part of every Launch Demo Day, and this one was particularly poignant: these COVID years have been brutal, and this year\u2019s Demo Day was our first in-person since 2019,\u201d said Tim Flood, acting executive director and entrepreneur-in-residence at Launch Chapel Hill. \u201cThe teams\u2019 excellence, commitment and success were great to see\u2014even more so because of the phenomenal turnout from members of the community. The networking, the buzz, the clear evidence that people were simply overjoyed to come together all contributed to this celebration of resilience and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n From culinary adventures like cold-brew coffees and flavor-packed, plant-based protein mixes and energy bars to tech platforms that deliver everything from higher-quality elder home care to business visualizations for executives, the startups put their pitch-prep work to good use.<\/p>\n This group of nine companies \u2013 the 20th such cohort to pass through Launch Chapel Hill since the downtown accelerator and co-working space took root in 2013 \u2013 explained the business models they\u2019d shaped during the 14-week program and outlined their plans for future growth.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re excited because every year, we have two-to-three cohorts of companies and get the opportunity to surround them with resources from the town, county and University to help them thrive,\u201d said Sheryl Waddell, interim economic development director at Innovate Carolina<\/a>. \u201cThe companies in our most recent cohort have been working extremely hard, and they\u2019re focused on solutions to problems that will not only create an economic impact but also improve the quality of life for many people.\u201d<\/p>\n Launch Chapel Hill was formed through a partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill, the Town of Chapel Hill and Orange County. It is managed by Innovate Carolina, the University\u2019s central team for innovation and entrepreneurship, and has supported more than 150 companies over the past nine years. These companies have raised more than $38 million in total funding. Based on a 2020-21 snapshot analysis by Innovate Carolina, Launch companies earned more than $69 million in annual revenue and employed more than 800 people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are thrilled to be a part of this program, and it\u2019s such an incredible experience. It\u2019s really been motivating to work with the cohort and mentors,\u201d said David Hughes, founder of Kinetik, a company that is developing go-to-market visualization optimization software. \u201cThe whole program has resulted in my believing that we can actually do this\u2014and my getting connected with a community that has given me confidence that we can turn this into an incredible company.\u201d<\/p>\n Neal Shah, the founder and CEO of CareYaya, shared how his company is solving a problem that he\u2019s passionate about: creating high-quality, affordable elder care in North Carolina.<\/p>\n \u201cThis industry is completely broken, as I\u2019ve experienced myself,\u201d said Shah. \u201cBasically, the options are, if you\u2019re very wealthy, you can hire a local care agency and pay over $30 an hour, and even so, [the elderly] experience low-quality care and a lot of no-shows. And for everyone else, you\u2019re out of luck. It\u2019s find someone yourself, or ask a friend or neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n Through CareYaya, Shah provides an online platform that lets family members schedule caregivers \u2013 drawn from pre-health students at local universities like UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University \u2013 to provide assistance with activities like meals, housekeeping, mobility, exercise and transportation at almost half the cost of traditional in-home care options.<\/p>\n Neal Shah (right) delivers his pitch for his startup, CareYaya. (Brock Pierce\/Innovate Carolina)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tasha Holland-Kornegay\u2019s company WIRL (Wellness in Real Life) also provides an online solution focused on health \u2013 specifically helping health care workers themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cOver 60% of the people who take care of you and me are burnt out,\u201d said Holland-Kornegay, CEO of WIRL, who cites increased health provider turnover rate, alcohol and drug abuse, higher medical errors and provider suicides as the consequences of burnout. \u201cHealth care workers are too busy to search for resources and services when they start to feel burned out.\u201d<\/p>\n WIRL provides a free online platform that helps health care workers quickly and easily identify, prevent and overcome burnout by connecting them to a variety of curated resources.<\/p>\n Exsto Bio, another Launch company that will provide specialized health-related consulting, seeks to \u201cset the standard of patient care for the personalization of medical cannabis so that patients, doctors and nurses can stop guessing and start treating,\u201d because current prescription and distribution models are very generalized. Exsto\u2019s science-based processes offer novel toxicology testing, targeted therapeutics and first-in-class, highly customized care.<\/p>\n \u201cOur therapeutics will target specific ailments, and we\u2019re going to ensure that only the most pure, safest products get to market,\u201d says Juan Carlos Pacheco, co-founder, who is an MBA student at Kenan-Flagler Business School. His co-founders David Lee (pharmacology) and Keith Rogers (toxicology) are also graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n Health and wellness aren\u2019t the only causes that Launch founders are using tech to take up. Leah Gallant\u2019s and Karen Gee\u2019s company Jay Bridge is developing an online platform to help families navigate post-high school life and career pathways. Gallant points to the 3.7 million students who graduate from high school in the United States each year, with 85% of them relying on guidance counselors who have too many students to properly assist. The result is a gap between those who have the information to make effective educational and professional decisions, and those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents who have the financial resources are able to work with counselors in private practice, but these fees are out of reach for most people,\u201d said Gallant. \u201cThe people who are most affected by these fees are people from marginalized backgrounds, people who are first-generation Americans, and those who are the first in their family to attend college. This also affects students\u2019 abilities to access broader information about professional and career programs that might be available but that they might not know about because they don\u2019t have access to counseling.\u201d<\/p>\n Jay Bridge is building a platform to increase access to information. \u201cWe broaden our scope to go beyond university and colleges to provide insight on what it\u2019s like to attend professional and career training programs. And by providing our clients with this access, we\u2019ve been able to allow them to confidently transition from high school to life beyond,\u201d said Gallant.<\/p>\n Beyond forwarding-thinking tech ventures, a group of food-based startups pitched inventive concepts of their own. DoJo Fresh founder and owner Oliver Pau is tapping into the $1.4 billion plant-based meat market, which he notes is the fastest growing segment in grocery stores. DojoFresh produces a plant-based food mix \u2013 made with simple, natural ingredients and no preservatives \u2013 that lets people make protein-rich meat alternative suited to their own taste.<\/p>\n \u201cOur customers are telling us that they are having problems with existing meatless products. A lot of those products are focused on fast food, and they don\u2019t consider them healthy. They don\u2019t want products that are highly processed and designed to imitate meat. And they have a wide range of preferences, and they\u2019re finding limited options in the store.\u201d<\/p>\n Pau describes DoJo Fresh\u2019s product as \u201cBisquick for seitan\u201d \u2013 a shelf-stable mix that is used to make the wheat-based protein. \u201cAll you need is water and your favorite sauce, and in four easy steps, you can make your own meatless crumbles, patties, nuggets and more.\u201d<\/p>\n The company Atmabala infuses its Btein protein bar with ashwagandha, which aids mental health and wellness as well as physical health and diet. \u201cOur mission is to provide physical and mental nourishment every day through essential nutrients,\u201d said Hema Saran, co-founder of Atmabala. The company plans a whole line of products empowered by eastern approaches to health and wellness. Its flagship product, the Btein protein bar, is already available online, and\u2014thanks to the Atmabala\u2019s time in the accelerator\u2014it is planning product-line expansions soon.<\/p>\n Gee Rege, co-founder of Tempo, is focused on another growing market: cold brew coffee. \u201cCold-brewed coffee has turned into one of the hottest new trends in the coffee market over the last decade, and that has resulted in an explosion of packaged cold-brewed coffees,\u201d explained Rege. When compared to hot-brewed coffee, cold brews are lower in acidity, lower in bitterness and higher in sweetness, she said. But, Rege notes, there\u2019s a hitch: most packaged cold brews are pasteurized, which compromises flavor.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is where we saw an opportunity to offer a product that prioritizes flavor,\u201d said Rege. \u201cMy partner Kevin Murphy and I soft-launched Tempo to offer unpasteurized cold-brew coffee concentrate. By keeping these coffees unpasteurized, it allows us to retain the full flavor profile of the coffee and its velvety sweetness.\u201d<\/p>\n Gee Rege (right), co-founder of Tempo at the Launch Demo Day. (Brock Pierce\/Innovate Carolina)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sample Vu targets the other end of the spectrum: food and beverage companies and the millions of dollars wasted each year due to the obstacles and inefficiencies these companies face while bringing new products to market, particularly at the focus-group stage. Sample Vu, whose co-founders include 2022 UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School MBA graduates Rhett Ferrin and Mark Whitmire, streamlines the process of gathering focus groups together, collecting and analyzing the data, and moving products to market. Says Whitmire, \u201cThere are about 30,000 more SKU\u2019s in a grocery store today than in 1990, but the process to develop these products is terribly inefficient.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBusiness school professor Ted Zoller recently told me that Launch Chapel Hill is the longest-standing accelerator program in North Carolina,\u201d Tim Flood noted after all the pitches had finished. \u201cThis \u2018crazy idea\u2019 that the Town of Chapel Hill, Orange County and the UNC campus community came up with almost 10 years ago was, clearly, an innovation all its own, one that I\u2019m very glad to say continues to support our coworkers, companies and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Like its cohort of new companies, Launch Chapel Hill has designs on big future plans, too. The accelerator will soon move into a new innovation hub space.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re excited to announce that Launch Chapel Hill will take up a new home next spring when the University opens an innovation hub downtown,\u201d said Waddell. \u201cThe hub will give us even more opportunities to connect startups to innovation talent, develop industry- and research-driven partnerships, and build a community of successful startups. We\u2019re excited to have the relationship between the Town, County and University continue through Launch Chapel Hill in this new space.\u201d<\/p>\n The innovation hub will be located at 136 East Rosemary St. in a building that is being renovated by Grubb Properties downtown. The University\u2019s innovation hub will be home to Innovate Carolina, which will co-locate the University\u2019s programming that supports innovation, entrepreneurship and its research-to-market pipeline. This programming will include the Launch Chapel Hill startup accelerator, co-working space and a collaborative business environment for industry and community partners. The hub is part of the Carolina Economic Development Strategy<\/a>, which is an effort between the University, town and other local leaders designed to create a downtown innovation district that will retain, attract and grow more innovation-oriented companies and talent in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n For more information about the innovation hub, contact Innovate Carolina via this online interest form.<\/a><\/p>\n Learn more about Innovate Carolina<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nTech ventures focus on health, educational challenges<\/h2>\n
![\"Neal](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/launch-demo-day-careyaya-1024x768.jpg?resize=1020%2C765&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nFood-forward ventures<\/h2>\n
![\"Gee](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/IMG_7705-1024x683.jpg?resize=1020%2C680&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nFuture home: innovation hub<\/h2>\n